Early life

Joseph Clover was born on 28 February,1825 in the picturesque town of Aylsham, Norfolk, the second son of John Wright Clover (1780-1865) and his second wife, Elizabeth Mary Ann Peterson. The draper's shop which his father ran in Market Place is no longer there, having been replaced by a group of flats known now as Joseph Clover's Court. There is a plaque over the pharmacy under the Court, acknowledging this as the birth place of Joseph Clover. Just across the road is the Black Boys Inn which was there in Clover's time and is mentioned in his diaries. Joseph was one of five children, all probably born over the shop in Market Place. In 1835, their mother, Elizabeth inherited her uncle John Bayfield Peterson estate and the family moved into his property, Abbots Hall (known at that time as Aylsham Wood House)(1)

Joseph was educated at the Grey Friars School in Norfolk. By all accounts he was a good student with neat copybooks and, as was customary, he was taught Latin, an essential subject when he decided to study medicine.